| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4] > | Article "8 spelling mistakes even smart people make" Thread poster: Melanie Meyer
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Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:45
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Where I come from, a smart person is a well-dressed, well-groomed person.
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:45
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Michael Grant wrote:
I have gotten to the point
That's OK so long as you restrict yourself to American English.
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:45
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Jenny Forbes wrote:
"we should of" for "we should have", "if I'd of known" for "if I had known", etc.
Yes, and "I'm fed up of" trying to correct these errors.....
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:45
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Katharine Ridgard wrote:
Using an apostrophe before the "s" in plurals. At least one very clever friend of mine does this every time she writes a word in the plural. Why???
Why? Because, of course, your friend is not a supporter of the Apostrophe Protection Society!
http://www.apostrophe.org.uk/
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IrimiConsulting 
Sweden
Local time: 11:45
Member (2010)
English to Swedish
+ ...
| Smartness != spelling ability | Oct 24, 2011 |
A friend of mine is an MD. He had very good albeit not top grades from high school, but he scored maximum on the Swedish Scholastic Assessment Test. He has also a verified IQ above average. And he has dyslexia so his spelling is horrible.
Spelling ability is not a requirement for being smart and has never been.
| | | | Miriam Neidhardt (X)
Germany
Local time: 11:45
English to German
| The worst mistake.. | Oct 24, 2011 |
... even translators here do is:
Do's and Dont's.
Makes me wanna scream every time I have to read it.
Miriam
| | | | Jack Doughty
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:45
Russian to English
+ ...
In memoriam | UK school system. | Oct 24, 2011 |
My time in the UK school system was 1936-1947. At that time grammar was very thoroughly taught in my (well-named) grammar school, and I have always been very thankful for that when studying other languages. But it all went to pot in the sixties (not 60's!).
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Katharine Ridgard wrote:
Using an apostrophe before the "s" in plurals. At least one very clever friend of mine does this every time she writes a word in the plural. Why???
There used to be an old rule where apostrophes are inserted in certain cases. (But of course, using it in every plural is wrong…)
Apparently, nowadays no one uses (or is aware of) this rule any more. I suspect (I don’t want to say this but) graphic designers may be partly to blame.
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Ty Kendall
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:45
Hebrew to English
| Things have changed for the worse... | Oct 24, 2011 |
Jack Doughty wrote:
My time in the UK school system was 1936-1947. At that time grammar was very thoroughly taught in my (well-named) grammar school, and I have always been very thankful for that when studying other languages. But it all went to pot in the sixties (not 60's!).
...I think that is because the people in charge were smoking too much pot in the sixties (and since)
I went through the UK school system in 1991-1996 (Secondary school) and the only way we were taught grammar was through foreign languages.
This is undoubtedly the reason why when I was at uni I have heard "what's a verb?" before. Chilling.
You should download and look at a modern GCSE English Language syllabus, it will make you weep!
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:45
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Ty Kendall wrote: Jack Doughty wrote:
My time in the UK school system was 1936-1947. At that time grammar was very thoroughly taught in my (well-named) grammar school, and I have always been very thankful for that when studying other languages. But it all went to pot in the sixties (not 60's!). ...I think that is because the people in charge were smoking too much pot in the sixties (and since) I went through the UK school system in 1991-1996 (Secondary school) and the only way we were taught grammar was through foreign languages. This is undoubtedly the reason why when I was at uni I have heard "what's a verb?" before. Chilling. You should download and look at a modern GCSE English Language syllabus, it will make you weep!
Three things:
1. I smoked a lot of pot in the 60s and my English is fairly free of mistakes. Possibly because of writers like William Burroughs.
2. "Uni" is a horrible non-word. It's "university".
3. You have heard a verb before...what?
[Edited at 2011-10-24 17:48 GMT]
| | | | Ty Kendall
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:45
Hebrew to English
| What's wrong with Uni? | Oct 24, 2011 |
Well I guess it depends on taste, but I frequently abbreviate "university". Maybe it's because I haven't long left, the past few years I've had to say it a lot, so "university" naturally gets shortened. (Language change argument?)
3. What I meant was:
When I was at uni (university), I heard the following statement more than once: "What's a verb?", which sent a shiver down my spine every time.
| | | | Rachel Fell
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:45
French to English
+ ...
Jack Doughty wrote:
My time in the UK school system was 1936-1947. At that time grammar was very thoroughly taught in my (well-named) grammar school, and I have always been very thankful for that when studying other languages. But it all went to pot in the sixties (not 60's!).
All too true, sixties and seventies, and nothing to do with partaking of herbal substances, just daft ideas. And they haven't yet managed to put it right again.
BTW, I'd say "univ." if anything.
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Neil Coffey
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:45
French to English
+ ...
| "lack of adequate language instruction" | Oct 25, 2011 |
Ty Kendall wrote:
The lack of knowledge of how to use "your/you're" and "they're/there/their" has little to do with language change, they are still homophones as they have always been, but the lack of adequate language instruction in British schools (well-documented) has produced legions of people who talk about "your great" / "your the best".
Mmmmm seriously? Think for a minute about those children whose learning ability is such that, given a few examples, they are incapable of intuitively working out what the pattern is in the use of "your" vs "you're". (I don't mean accidentally using one rather than the other on Facebook-- I mean actually being unable to work out what the pattern is.) Now, for those children unable to work this out for themselves, do you seriously think that it is the most pressing issue that teachers need to focus on in teaching them? Seriously? Don't you think that the children unable to work this out will have a whole mountain of other more pressing learning issues to be addressed?
[Edited at 2011-10-25 02:17 GMT]
| | | | | Apples and oranges | Oct 25, 2011 |
Mmmmm seriously? Think for a minute about those children whose learning ability is such that, given a few examples, they are incapable of intuitively working out what the pattern is in the use of "your" vs "you're". (I don't mean accidentally using one rather than the other on Facebook-- I mean actually being unable to work out what the pattern is.) Now, for those children unable to work this out for themselves, do you seriously think that it is the most pressing issue that teachers need to focus on in teaching them? Seriously? Don't you think that the children unable to work this out will have a whole mountain of other more pressing learning issues to be addressed?
[Edited at 2011-10-25 02:17 GMT]
Sure, kids learn at different paces, some "get it" right away, and some require more instruction. That's why those who struggle with learning belong in classes designed for their learning speed/ability. However, in an English or grammar class with kids who learn at a more or less "normal" pace, these kinds of things should be learned, no?
I was under the impression that we were talking in general terms, assuming kids with average learning abilities...The topic of kids with "more pressing learning issues" involves an entirely different set of considerations. Apples and oranges...
| | | | | Communication -(minus) Spelling = Babel | Oct 25, 2011 |
Ty Kendall wrote:
This isn't something which should be accepted on the basis of being descriptive.
Agreed!
Besides, how hard is it to spell correctly?
There has to be a certain level/standard of writing that people are taught and adhere to, otherwise communication is reduced to babel.
This is not rocket science (which, by the way, I'm sure would be quite hard to conduct via what passes for the "language" in social media these days)!
[Edited at 2011-10-25 02:55 GMT]
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